Odd Man Out

"Professor Richard C. Thornton's book is a political history of the contentious American-Soviet-Chinese interaction during 1949 and 1950 that precipitated the Korean War and altered the shape of global politics from then to now. Odd Man Out is based on recently declassified and previously unavailable documents from Soviet, Chinese, and U.S. archives. Thornton contends that the war was primarily the result of the machinations and miscalculations of Stalin, Truman, Mao, and their respective advisors. Thus, the strife between North Koreans and South Koreans was secondary, and the war itself was avoidable."--BOOK JACKET.